This is only required for initial setup - even then only first two lines need changing i.e. IP address set to same subnet but other than 192.168.1.20 'cos your Bullet is factory set to that address. Subnet mask set as above, that's all.

Quote:

At this stage, I get two green lights on the Bullet. From here on in it gets tricky to get into the AirOS setup page. Sometimes I can get in if I disconnect the power wait a while and re-connect and eventually I get in. Once in, I have tried updating the firmware under the system tab many times. I was able to download v 5.3 firmware but during the upload it gives up and I can't get any further.

So I gave up on that and decided to set the network up under the network tab. So I re-power the bullet and start over and I go to the network tab. Here are my settings:

Its clear from attached image that you have Bullet set as Access Point. Go to Wireless tab & set it as Station as clearly mentioned in instructions. Maybe read them again whilst your at it.

Its clear from attached image that you have Bullet set as Access Point. Go to Wireless tab & set it as Station as clearly mentioned in instructions. Maybe read them again whilst your at it.

Thanks very much, I know it's clearly in the instructions and I know it needs to be set but that's near the bottom of the instructions .As you can see from my description I can't set anything. Those photos are taken before I hit the "change" button. ie: changing anything locks it up. I think you might be suggesting to skip all other steps and set that, so I will try that and see what happens.

Thanks very much, I know it's clearly in the instructions and I know it needs to be set but that's near the bottom of the instructions .As you can see from my description I can't set anything. Those photos are taken before I hit the "change" button. ie: changing anything locks it up. I think you might be suggesting to skip all other steps and set that, so I will try that and see what happens.

Yes just setup in the order as shown in my guide.

Factory default is of course Access Point mode so just make all the changes pressing Change button after each THEN press Apply button to institute the changes.

You should only have to press Apply once to configure.

I wonder if the "lock up" you refer to is simply the result of enabling DHCP on the 192.168.10.xx subnet. As explained in the guide you loose access to the setup menu once the changes are made because you have changed the IP address. You need to reset your PC LAN adapter to obtain address automatically (default setting). DHCP on your Bullet will do its stuff with your PC & you should then be able to access it again on new address 192.168.10.20

READ THIS ARTICLE I WROTE If you still need help after reading it, PM me a phone number I can reach you at, and I'll see if I can walk you through it.

Dan, I need to take a break from this to get some other pressing things done, I will play with it some other time and if no luck I'll pm you. Didn't get much futher on with this, as a matter of fact it's worse than ever. Now I can't even get to the AirOS login page, I was only able to get on once in the last while but it's never been consistant. No matter what I do now, when I enter the url 192.168.1.20 and hit a return, the bullet starts flashing red orange etc. and I get a popup message "A network cable is unplugged" in XP and similar results on OS7.

I wonder if the "lock up" you refer to is simply the result of enabling DHCP on the 192.168.10.xx subnet. As explained in the guide you loose access to the setup menu once the changes are made because you have changed the IP address. You need to reset your PC LAN adapter to obtain address automatically (default setting). DHCP on your Bullet will do its stuff with your PC & you should then be able to access it again on new address 192.168.10.20

Tried this, no luck. Right now it does nothing anymore. I connect it, get two green lights LAN control panel shows it connecting as "unidentified network". Entering 192.168.1.20 in the browser results in nothing now. But it was like that intermittantly before, now I can't get to the setup page at all. Need to take a break and get some other stuff done. Thanks for the help.

With all due respect to all particpants: This thread was originally suggesting (from my reading) that a 12dBi antenna was going to be superior to, say, a 6dbi because it had more range.

Max power allowed is 36dBm for Wi-Fi (for Point-To-Multipoint). That's a full power Bullet2HP and a 6dBi antenna. Staying within the 36dBm limit, a 12dBi antenna coupled to a Bullet would need it's output power derated to 24dBm (250mW). It would seem the benefit of increasing the antenna gain is significantly reduced, if not eliminated, by the decrease in power output of the radio. What you end up with is about the same range and a pancake of a radiation pattern. Why not just stay with the 6dBi and enjoy a fuller 'donut'?

Of course, there are those that would (whether intentionally or not) couple a full power Bullet2HP to a 12dBi omni (42dBm, 16W output). The result is overdriving of the input of the hotspot receiver if in close enough and polluting the airwaves for everyone at an anchorage or marina. Tests we've run and from what I've already read in this thread suggest this is happening. Now at distance: The problem is that the hotspot is probably running only at 36dBm (4W) and may hear a distant 12dBi system, but the distant 12dBi system can't hear back because the hotspot is putting out 4x less power. My arguement (from our tests) is that the Bullet (with stated sensitivities) having a 12dBi antenna stuck on it does not increase its ability to receive to the same order of magnitude as its ability to transmit. Ergo: different effective real world transmit and receive gains. We have successfully connected in excess of 5sm using a 6dBi omni and Bullet2HP mounted on a radar arch (with a clear line of sight and a properly powered and located hotspot of course).

If you want a reliable connection to those distant hotspots that seem flakey, increase the sensitivity by selecting B mode where the spec for the Bullet2HP says that sensitivity and output power are highest. There is also the benefit with lower data rates to receive more reliably since each bit slice time is longer thus giving the receiver a greater opportunity to properly detect it.

This is not about believing/disbelieving anyone. It's about being a good netizen (net citizen) and sharing a Wi-Fi resource that should be available to be enjoyed by all in a marina or anchorage.

Again, if anyone has any real world experience that suggests any of what I've stated above is faulty, I'm alway open to listen and potentially change my viewpoint.

Mike

(Just re-read this.)

I didn't know this before Mike posted about it. One minor correction I'd make....

Having a high gain antenna will help the receive signal strength, so you'll be able to recieive signals from farther away from the marina or other access point. From what Mike says, after connecting a high gain antenna you would lower the transmit power. And doing so won't matter to you because you are limited by your receive signal strength. And you'll be a good netizen too.

This means that with a high gain antenna you could buy a cheaper bullet that doesn't have 1000mw (1 watt) of transmit power. If I recall correctly, the 250mw ones are much cheaper. Even the 800mw ones are cheaper.

As for me, since I like to experiment, and I don't mind making the setting changes, I'll keep the higher power one that I have and lower it's power output. Some experimantation is in order to find the sweet spot of lowest power without affecting performance.

WiFi is designed to serve multiple poeple at once. We don't want sailboats to get a bad reputation by "stepping on" the signals from others. Please transmit responsibly.

I didn't know this before Mike posted about it. One minor correction I'd make....

Having a high gain antenna will help the receive signal strength, so you'll be able to recieive signals from farther away from the marina or other access point. From what Mike says, after connecting a high gain antenna you would lower the transmit power. And doing so won't matter to you because you are limited by your receive signal strength. And you'll be a good netizen too.

This means that with a high gain antenna you could buy a cheaper bullet that doesn't have 1000mw (1 watt) of transmit power. If I recall correctly, the 250mw ones are much cheaper. Even the 800mw ones are cheaper.

As for me, since I like to experiment, and I don't mind making the setting changes, I'll keep the higher power one that I have and lower it's power output. Some experimantation is in order to find the sweet spot of lowest power without affecting performance.

WiFi is designed to serve multiple poeple at once. We don't want sailboats to get a bad reputation by "stepping on" the signals from others. Please transmit responsibly.

Regards,
Brad

Brad I thought we had laid this one to rest. In the 2.4GHz Bullet range there are 2, 2HP and M2HP models. The Bullet 2 spec is 20dBm = 100mW tx power with 802.11b connection. The 2HP 29dBm = 800mW. The M2HP almost the same @ 28dBm but with greater tolerance. In any case prices are much the same - in fact some suppliers sell the newer, higher turnover M2HP cheaper than legacy models.

There are no 250mW or 1000mW models - some suppliers just round up to make the figures look good.

Is this because in the instructions you are told to change Bullet address to 192.168.10.20 ?

If you have made the change then naturally you will need to use this new address.

Suggest you reset Bullet then start again.

Well well well, that's definitely part of my problem.

OK...I have success (somewhat).
Thanks very much for your time Dan and Richard.

I will say now, I'm in a somewhat remote area close to a very very tiny village and it has given me wifi where I had none prior to getting this going. Right now the antenna is sitting vertically in the pilothouse and I have about 4 good sites to choose from and a few encrypted ones, so I expect better once I experiment with hoisting the unit up the mast.

But I have some major problems. For example (and this is what has been giving me a lot of grief all along and it's why it's taken so long to get all the changes made). This is quite random, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Right now for example my LAN is reading "Network 2" and I can surf the net. When I open a new window and select 192.168.10.20 I get the logon page but as soon as I make the entries and hit a return, the LAN immediately switches to "Network cable unplugged" and then it changes to "Identifying" and finally "Network 2" and I never get in. On the odd occasion I can get in but changing to another wifi location will give me the same results.

To get it going again, I have to disconnect the power to the Bullet, wait about 5 or 10 minutes and then I can get as far as changing sites, hitting "change" and then hitting "apply" under the wireless tab. but the moment I select the "Main" tab, I loose my connection again just like above. But if I go through that process again, I can see that it has actually been changed. Sometimes I can just re-launch the browser but usually I have to unplug the Bullet and let is sit for a while.

This is all very very random and changes for whatever reason. I haven't made any changes to settings for quite a few hours since I got it to work.

[edit] As far as I can tell right now, once I have a connection to a site, I can surf as long as I want without running into the above problems. But I haven't had a lot of time connected to test that. The problem seems to occure whenever I try to get to the AirOS setup page.

[edit] So it appears that I do have problems even if I'm just surfing. It says I'm connected but I can't open any web pages. There is no way for me to tell what the connection is like but after powering down the Bullet for a period of time and starting over, and going through the same process, I can link to the same wifi site and I'm back in business.
This doesn't really work very well as is, it's very frustrating.

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